Democratic Boss Tom Wade got whacked big-time by his party committee Thursday night, losing a major battle to Troy City Chairman Frank LaPosta over how candidates are selected.
Wade had hit the roof earlier this week when an announcement of former City Councilman Keith Rogers' candidacy hit the newspapers. Rogers had appar ently consulted with LaPosta and the Rogers candidacy was news to Wade. Which did not make the control freak County Chair very happy, and Wade intended to shut down LaPosta at the Thursday Democratic executive committee and form a candidate selection committee controlled by Wade.
In essence, Wade wanted the committee to go along with changing, amending or ignoring by-laws on candidate selections, ironically, the same by-laws Wade has used to try to increase his power in the party.
Except this time, LaPosta outmaneuvered Wade, allying himself with Democrats from North Greenbush, Sand Lake and Brunswick, in shutting down the Wade hijacking of the candidate selection process. All accounts say it was a major victory for LaPosta.
Wade was none too happy at being rejected by a committee he thought he could control. Add the fact that Democrats are lacking candidates for many county offices, which many in the party blame Wade for, and also cannot effectively raise money, which many Democrats also blame Wade for, and you can see the headaches Wade has.
Democrats like Wade had been saying LaPosta was on thin ice. Thursday showed that LaPosta may be the real power in the party, after shutting down Wade and rallying Democrats to his cause. Are there more moves planned by the growing LaPosta forces in the party?
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